INVESTIGATING THE DECLINE IN STUDENT ATTENDANCE FOLLOWING POLICY CHANGES ALLOWING EXAMS WITHOUT MANDATORY ATTENDANCE

Abstract

Background: The announcement of the new academic rules that allow students to take exams without meeting the required minimum attendance enforced in classes has raised a concern among educational administrators, the faculty, and policymakers all over the world. Although this kind of policies was mostly established due to growing needs to curricular flexibility and due to the spread of online learning platforms, these impacts on classroom interaction and attendance behaviours have not been deeply explored. Purpose: In this work, the researcher explores the degree to which introduced changes in policy that permit examinations without the compulsory attendance policy have led to a quantifiable undergraduate decrease in the number of students attending classes.

Methodology: A mixed-methods research design was used where 1,240 undergraduate students and 86 faculty members were sampled in five universities in three countries. The analysis of quantitative attendance data based on the institutional databases over six academic years (20192025) has been conducted using the qualitative data collections obtained through semi-structured interviews and structured questionnaires.

Findings: It was found that there was a statistically significant decrease in the average attendance rates, i.e., 84.3% before implementing the policy and 61.7% after, representing a decrease of about 22.6 points. Qualitative results show that attendance seems to be not obligatory to students when the relationship between examination eligibility and attendance is broken. Faculty indicated classroom worsening, less involvement and poor performance.

Conclusion: The paper finds that non-mandatory attendance policies provide only minimal flexibility in the short term, but with serious dangers to academic life, quality learning and institutional culture. It is highly recommendable that evidence-based policy revisions be done including hybrid accountability mechanisms.